Archive for February, 2007

Reel 2 Reel Turkeys

Tuesday, February 27th, 2007

The link is birds.
Katharine Hepburn: Maltese Falcon
Julia Roberts: Pelican Brief
Eric Bana: Black Hawk Down
Robert Redford: Legal Eagles
Uma Thurman: Batman & Robin
To wrap up the challenge, can you name two more movies that not only feature birds in their title, but also feature lead actors with bird surnames? One surname identifies a mythical bird, while the [...]

Reel 2 Reel 2

Saturday, February 24th, 2007

So what’s the movie link [see previous post] between today’s extended list?
Katharine Hepburn
Julia Roberts
Eric Bana
Robert Redford
Uma Thurman
Still no takers. Be the first to spot the connection.

Reel 2 Reel

Thursday, February 22nd, 2007

Every few days I’ll be adding to a list of film stars.
Your challenge is to work out the link that exists between the actors – before the set grows too large.
As a clue, the answer won’t rely on each actor’s personal details so much as what films they have appeared in.
To start the list – [...]

Celebrity Forum II

Tuesday, February 20th, 2007

A peculiar echo runs through this list – the answers to last week’s Celebrity Forum:
LLOYD COLE & DIDO
OVID
DAVID DALE
ADAM DALE
DAVID LLOYD
DAVID VILLA
EMILY COX
EMMA CALVE
Fossicking the Net, I also found MALCOLM BOYD (the so-called Espresso Priest of gay rights), Australian singer/songwriter ALEX LLOYD, DAVID MALCOLM (the Chief Justice overseeing the 2002 pardon of John Button [...]

Celebrity Forum

Saturday, February 17th, 2007

MILLI VANILLI, MOLLY MELDRUM, ERIC IDLE and CLEO LAINE go oh-so close to boasting only Roman numberals as their consonants. In all four cases, the celebs are betrayed by a lousy letter.
To give you a brain strain over the weekend, can you identify the clued names below, all of whom possess Roman numerals – EXCLUSIVELY [...]

QQQ2

Thursday, February 15th, 2007

Quaint was my very faint clue. Each name – ADA LOVELACE, LADY DI, LEE IACOCCA, VLADE DIVAC and MALCOLM X – owns Roman numerals as its only consonants.
ADA LOVELACE, as seen here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace
on Wiki, has a special place in both computing and puzzling. Only true verbal tragics will relish the fact that all-Roman ADA worked [...]

Quigley’s Quaint Quintet

Tuesday, February 13th, 2007

American crossword maestro, Brendan Emmett Quigley is evasively wriggly when it comes to themes. In a recent puzzle, published within the spoof rag The Onion, BEQ featured the following key entries:
Ada Lovelace – reputedly the world’s first computer programmer
Lady Di
Ex-Ford exec, Lee Iacocca
Slavic Laker star, Vlade Divac
and civil rights activist Malcolm X
So what connects the [...]

Hazy Definitions 4

Monday, February 12th, 2007

To wrap up the series of Hazy Definitions, here’s a treble. This week’s challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to use all three in casual conversation:
velarise: to produce with velar articulation [and velar, as we know, describes the tongue curled toward - or touching - the soft palate] So what is a word [...]

Hazy Definitions 3

Saturday, February 10th, 2007

Blackman’s potatoes are also known as early Nancy. At least that’s the insight the Macquarie blindly provided the hapless gardener. Deeper lost I went looking for early Nancy, and order was restored:
a wildflower of the lily family found throughout Australia, the white flower of which has a purple band around the base of each segment, [...]

Hazy Definitions 2

Thursday, February 8th, 2007

Fear not mariners, SIAL is not a misspelt SAIL but a term from geology – at least I think. A trip to the dictionary revealed the following Hazy Definition:
sial: a grantie layer of lithosphere
Care to trump this Hazy Definition? Tomorrow I’ll tell you all about blackman’s potatoes.